


Maybe because he'll make you feel alive

by CourtneyCourtney



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Alternative Perspective, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Spoilers Through 4.05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-16 09:29:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21505657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CourtneyCourtney/pseuds/CourtneyCourtney
Summary: "Hi Janet!" chirps the demon meatsuit, perfect teeth sparkling under the spotlight. "It's me, Jason! Your boyfriend? I really miss you."Oh, thinks Janet, a quiet sinking thing. Ohthisis the torture.(or, Janet's thoughts during her rescue in "Employee of the Bearimy")
Relationships: Jianyu Li | Jason Mendoza/Janet (The Good Place)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 184





	Maybe because he'll make you feel alive

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Come Home with Me" from _Hadestown_ because my boy Jason literally went back to hell for Janet like the dumbest, most jacked Orpheus in modern media.
> 
> Also, I had this meta back in the second season about Janet being the Ariel to Michael's Prospero that I never published and will now boil down to one, single reference in this fic. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

Hell is full, and all the demons are here. That's the point of Demon Con, Janet supposes. It's efficient to keep everyone on the same page, and having a hell-wide seminar is certainly the most thorough way to do it, even if that means certain demonic activities are left unattended for a day or two (or ten? Hard to tell the passage of the Bearimy down here). In a perfect system, a brief period of time with all the demons preoccupied would be all the better to even out the point system, to allow the forces of good to dominate the battle for a moment or two.

In practice, Janet knows, the good and the medium people are forked either way.

Hell is also fuzzy and prone to tilting, Jane thinks. That's probably just the magnets, however. Magnets, magnets, magnets. The stones from Magnesia. The thing about magnets is that they make Janets have all these _feelings_. Or, no. That's just life now, isn't it? Not life. Not a person. Not a robot, not a girl, just a Janet. But a Janet with feelings.

The thing about being a Janet that's been rebooted so many times, about being a Janet that's evolved and played God by making a new neighborhood, is that it's almost like being a human sometimes. Janet thought she _wanted_ to be able to feel things. Usually, it makes her existence more exciting, more enriching. Emotions can be wonderful. Feelings are great. Feelings are good.

Feelings can be used against her, though. Janet doesn't know that that's how they're supposed to work, but it is, and Hell knows it, too. They trot her out onto a stage, Rufus almost pushing her over, and she feels shame. The demons applaud her, and she feels sad.

Hell is blurry, and between her spinning head and the harsh light, Janet almost misses the way Vicky-as-Michael puts her left arm out, like she intends to catch Janet as she falls. It's a sick joke, but it's righter than any other moves Janet's seen from Vicky before. That's more Michael than it has any right to be. That and the suit's suit - Vicky finally got the tailoring right, the shoulders less boxy and the sleeves fitted properly, cuffed the way Michael gets so giddy over. The devil's in the details, Janet supposes.

Vicky is nothing, though, no matter how refined her approach is. This demonstration is nothing, one more indignity for Janet to endure.

Until suddenly it isn't. Until the stage shifts, or maybe just the people on it, and then _he's_ here. He's here, and he's handsome, and if Janet had a heart, it might be breaking. If Janet had a stomach, she might be throwing up, and if she had lungs, she definitely wouldn't breathe.

"Hi Janet!" chirps the demon meatsuit, perfect teeth sparkling as he steps out into the spotlight.

 _Oh_ , thinks Janet, a quiet sinking thing. Oh _this_ is the torture. If Janet were back home, back in the Medium Place and the neighborhood she'd so lovingly crafted, the whole thing about be in shambles. She couldn't support that kind of weight, not like this. She can't look away from him, though. Even if it isn't her beloved, even if it hurts to pretend otherwise, she can't stop staring at him.

"It's me, Jason!" the thing on stage says, spelling it out for the demonic audience. "Your boyfriend!"

Janet frowns. She doesn't want to hope, but she feels something like it rising from deep inside. Hell isn't that smart. They can get creative with their tortures, but this is _a lot_ for a demonstration. It's a lot for a disposable Janet. Torture by 'Michael' would have been enough; torture by Jason is -

"I really miss you."

Janet stops thinking and gives herself over to that feeling of hope. Hell would never be that kind. This is supposed to be torture; no matter how true it might be, no one from Hell would think to tell Janet that Jason _missed her_. They would never take that opportunity to make her feel good, even if only for a second.

Janet tears her gaze away from Jason to glance at Michael. He shakes his head, the left side of his mouth twitching as if cutting himself off from speaking, and _oh_. _Oh!_

It can't be real, Janet thinks as the feeling inside her takes flight. It's insane. Jason has _always_ been reckless and run in heart-before-head, but for him to risk _this_ , risk being caught and tortured again for _her_ sake?

"I know we were in a fight before, but - " Jason stops addressing the audience to look back at Janet. It's him. It's him, it's him, it's _him_ , Hell couldn't possibly know that. She can see it now, can see how he's uncomfortable with the audience not because he's a demon performing but because he's _Jason_ on the stage. Because Jason came back to Hell just to apologize to her.

"I hope you've forgiven me," Jason continues, "because I love you." He looks at their audience again before focusing all his love and attention on Janet. "... Girl."

"Not a girl," Janet whispers back. Janet feels relief. Janet feels astonishment. Janet doesn't want to cry, not in front of all these demons, but she might have to. There doesn't seem to be any better way to let these emotions out.

"Well, Janet," says Michael. He reaches out again with his left hand.

"Yeah?" Janet replies without thinking. He's acting, ever the showman, but it's the rightest and realest thing Janet knows in that moment besides her love for Jason.

"How's that make you feel?"


End file.
